9
" I felt guilty. I felt guilty because there I was, making a fuss over Jeff’s leaving, when I wouldn’t have minded going right along with him.
He wasn’t the only one who missed Dad. I did, too. And I missed my friend Sunny, and I missed the kids I used to baby-sit for.
Face it. I wanted to go back to California, too, but I wouldn’t leave Mom. No way. We were much too close for that. Besides, I liked Stoneybrook, too. Even in the middle of the freezing cold, snowy, icy winter, I liked Stoneybrook. What I wished was that we hadn’t moved at all. Then I wouldn’t feel so confused. "
― Ann M. Martin , Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)
12
" In any pageant, or in any game or contest, there are winners and there are losers. You might be a winner, Myriah, and that would be wonderful. Daddy and Gabbie and I and even Laura would be very proud of you, but you might be a loser, too.
There are going to be lots more losers than winners and I want you to know that we’ll be proud of you if you lose. We’ll be proud of you for having the courage to be in the pageant, and for the work and rehearsing you’ll do.”
“I know,” said Myriah, giving her mother a hug. “Thank you.”
“One more thing,” said her mother. “I think you should know that for some girls, this pageant won’t be just fun and games. I hope it’ll be fun for you, but for others it will be work. They’ll take it very seriously.
You might be competing against girls who have been winners in other pageants, or who have won beauty contests or talent contests. They’ll know how pageants work. And they might, just might, not be very friendly. I want you to understand what you’re getting into, that’s all. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Myriah. "
― Ann M. Martin , Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)
14
" I told them the whole story, from Ms. Besser’s fateful phone call until right now. “Now” was Jeff’s stuff slowly being packed away into trunks. It was my mom crying in her room at night. It was me crying in my room at night.
It was all of us, even Jeff, feeling like we were going through the divorce again. And because of that, it was Mom clinging to me, as if to say, Don’t you go away, too. Well, I wouldn’t. That was the one thing she’d never have to worry about. "
― Ann M. Martin , Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)
17
" Let’s see,” I said. “Claire, you’re near the beginning. You’ll always go on stage right after Myriah. And Margo, you’re sort of near the middle. You’ll always go on right after Sabrina Bouvier.”
“Right after who?” exclaimed Margo.
“Shh,” I said. “A girl named Sabrina Bouvier.”
Margo looked frantically around the backstage area. Her eyes traveled over Myriah, Charlotte, Karen, and several other contestants, and landed on the girl who was wearing the makeup (and plenty of it, I might add).
“That’s her,” said Margo fiercely. “I just bet that’s her. Who else would have a name like Sabrina Bouvier? "
― Ann M. Martin , Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)
